The warp tunnel is about to collapse, the shuddering begins, I begin to make out some features of the stargate, damn a bubble!

In this system we do have some "reds" and "nuets", both are potentially dangerous so this bubble could be a trap, however with the amount of friendlies also in the system I don't think it is as the hammer would come down on them pretty hard. In this case it is not, next to the gate are an Alliance Deimos and Harby, I assume as gate guards. As my warp in had put me at zero kilometres from the gate I jump through.

To be told when I was on the other side of the gate, "Watch out for the drag bubble Yos", from an Alliance member.

"Good one dickhead", was my seemingly light hearted reply considering I had to navigate through it to arrive in the system and the subsequent warning.

My purpose here was to meet with an agent I had to work on standings with. He is aligned to Caldari so my standing with him and his corporation is already okay but to work my way up the ISK chain I have to accept his missions to gain reputation.

We have a chat, he offers a mission which I accept, complete and repeat. In the system at the same time the Alliance has a mining operation in progress, which explains the bubble and the attempted heavy mob on the other side of the gate. We chat a bit, keeping an eye on local chat all the time for red or nuets, they call me in once or twice to dispatch some Serpentis battleships that warped in trying to disrupt the mining operation.

Finally with as many missions done as I can do before my brain melts out my ears I head for home and dock up knowing a corporation likes me that little bit more.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

So it was said during an alliance chat that I was participating in. For some reason my bio was checked out and judged to be depressing.

Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

You are not special.Odds are you will never achieve anything remarkable.Your existance has been forgotten by most that have met you.The Universe does not care if you live or die, pass or fail, win or lose.When heat death is final and nothing remains in the entire Universe, not even a mote or a single atom, humanity will be a forgotten blip towards the fuzzy beginning of it all.

Then whatever is left can ask itself, "How the HELL can a ship collide with a lighthouse?!?"

The intention was to build towards the punchline, of sorts, at the end about the irony of a ship hitting the very thing that is trying to help it.

I have a theory that the depression builds while reading it, people don't get to the end and then comment to me in alliance chat or go watch Donni Darko (as disclosure I quite like that movie).

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Be aware of who the good Fleet Controllers are, the bad and the ones that just seem to have some sort of tendency to get you killed.

As an example, I'm sitting in a system with half a dozen other alliance members, the call goes out that we have a Domi on gate and under attack, I type in chat that I'm on my way and hit warp.

Arrive at the gate to find both the hunter and the hunted have jumped through into the next system, after a moment or two hesitation I also jump through.

To find a system with a metric fuck ton of reds and nuets, not on the gate thankfully. The two blue guys are still trying to take this Domi down when a trickle of nuets start arriving at the gate, ejecting drones and joining the action.

At this stage I'm still sitting cloaked up after jumping in and sizing up the situation, which looked extra ordinarily bad!

So the only option is to abandon the potential fight and move towards the gate at high speed, no worries on that score and I leave the impending turkey shoot and re-enter my "home" system.

Now the FC enters the picture trying to organise the rather uninterested alliance members to form up, though not forming an actual fleet, enter the system with the previously mentioned "metric fuck ton" of bad guys and somehow attack them, and win.

Now I don't know what is going on in the FC's mind but at a guess I'd say it's about control and glory. Control over the people in his fleet, though a fleet was not made, and the glory, however slim of winning this fight and others in the future. In the abstract I realise the new FC has to learn the trade but not with an obviously (well to me anyway) unwinnable fight and not with my ship aka time.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

I have just realised that I am living in zero sec. Well...mostly as I rarely go back to high sec, certainly not to run missions but to pickup gear and ships for transport down to the zero sec zone.It's funny how when a realisation hits you, and then the double realisation of the realisation....ahh this could go on for a while.

Suffice to say the game is changing for me once again.

The expansion is a month away, some details were released today about planetary mining. If any of you still remember the old game M.U.L.E. I can see myself becoming happily lost in the market, planetary manufacturing and the details this could all bring.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

In this blog post "Zero Sec Happened" I describe what happened in game while I was trying to escape zero sec in a Battleship. However outside the game something else was happening, my world contracted for a short while in a dramatic way.

When I was set upon by the dastardly Frigates and others my concentration bubble was only me and the computer screen, I lost all awareness of the people around me, the sounds, the smells. I remember nothing except the battle.

Later that evening I subsequently received some grief from the GF as I had apparently totally ignored her goodbye as she left for work while I was zoned into the game and zoned out of everything else.

When the battle was over I imagine it was like emerging from the ocean depths to sit on the stern of the dive boat and once again experience the world, from horizon to horizon.

Every once in a while I'm reminded the Internet can really be another genuine world, albeit optional.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A while ago, while leaving zero sec space I had one of the more intense encounters I have had in a while.

My corporation was once again moving to a new area, I had already moved my gear and some other ships to the high security area as that was the staging point for the next step in the journey. The final ship to bring out was a Battleship, a Megathron.

The ship was fitted with short range blasters, a webber and some drones, a fairly typical PVP fit, though it was never used in that way as we moved before I had the chance.

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

"Yosagi this is Roku, I've scouted that route for you and it has no camps and little in the way of ships. So it should be clear, out.", and the line disconnected.

Grumbling about another typically short message from Roku I receive permission from docking control to leave the station, the local system is empty, align to the stargate and I am away.

Jump through the gate, align, warp, gate the sequence goes on for a few systems as I begin to leave the zero security home and head towards the safety of the Cat system.

As I enter the next system I know I'm in trouble, about six locals are around the gate in Frigates.

They target the Megathron, I try and target them but for the Battleship this takes about 20 seconds, the time seems to slow down as I'm waiting for the first target option to appear, more Frigates also appear.

Finally I can start shooting somebody, but first the drones, I eject some light T2 drones, set them on the first unlucky customer and think what to do next. The problem I have, which is now dawning on me is the fact I have large blasters, most suited for larger ships than Frigates zipping around my ship faster than flies, and about as numerous. The second problem is time, I am now warp scrambled and webbed, they are smart enough to have jumped a couple back through the gate so if I go back I'll be in the same situation.

Oh nice, the drones have destroyed a couple. Ahhh that new ship is a cruiser. What I have been concerned about is the fact this could be a delaying tactic before some bigger hitters arrive.

Target the cruiser, attack with drones, web and large blasters, yes that fixed him up, he warps away in structure and doesn't come back.

The damage caused by a dozen Frigates is starting to build up, my shield is gone but being an armour tanker this is not a real problem, though even with the armour reppers on full time my armour is still going down. They are shooting my drones, I am ejecting more drones to replace the destroyed ones, webbing Frigates, trying to shoot them once webbed with the large blasters, I also have an Large Energy Vampire which is messing up their Micro Warp Drives, I have killed a couple more.

By now a few wrecks litter the area, most of the Frigs have damage of some sort, they are warping in and out to try and escape my attack. Given the chance I will have some more frigates on the other side of the gate I have to make a decision. I align for a moon.

Risky? Yes but in the current situation, with my armour failing and running out of drones it is worth a shot.

I concentrate on the warp scrambling Frigates as not everybody seems to have one, a couple more die, I am not scrambled and warp away!

I leave in my wake six destroyed enemy Frigates and also (I find out later) a noob entry level ship! Boy did he pick the wrong day to come out.

While the situation might have improved I would not call it great. I'm still in the same system with some seriously pissed off Frigates, I don't know what is on the other side of the destination gate, I only have twenty percent armour left, and I just noticed some hull damage also, no shields left obviously. The drone bay is also pretty empty as most of those have been destroyed, all I have left is two mediums and three lights, so my last group of five, and they all have varying degrees of damage also.

I'll be very surprised if I get back to empire space.

Align for the gate, hope my Frigate friends are not sitting on it, this system has a couple of exits but they might be camping them all. In warp wondering what is waiting for me, the shuddering starts as the ship decelerates, I'm leaning forward trying in vain to gain a better view of the rapidly onrushing gate. It's clear!!! Jump through.

Crap!!!

On the other side is a Battlecruiser, a Hurricane, he targets me.

So to update my situation I'm now being targeted by a Battlecruiser, I have almost no shields, little armour, not many drones and in the system behind me a hornets nest of angry Frigates.

So I do what has to be done, I target and attack!

Eject the drones, target the Hurricane, all blasters, Energy Vamp and webber. I'm out of optimal for the blasters but they are having some effect, which should get better as I approach. Oh and I'm running out of Capacitor Charges also as this thing is heavy capacitor negative.

He has ejected his drones, he is attacking, he can see how damaged I am, my ship is mostly in the red, obviously he wants to finish me off.

His drones are gone, he is aligning? He warps away!! I thought I was gone for all money, maybe he thought I was still going to be too tough, or the aggressive all or nothing attack scared him? Guess I'll never know.

Only four jumps from Empire, no further incident, I enter Cat with damage to nearly every system and the ship is on fire.

When I appear in Cat a local hovering at the gate asks me what happened, referring to the burning ship.

Followers

Tracking

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